SAG Members Sign Online Solidarity Statement

By
Jay A. Fernandez
| Posted May 30, 2009, 2:33 p.m.

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And out come the big guns.

SAG said Friday that Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Sally Field and Tom Hanks have signed an online statement of support for ratification of the tentative TV-theatrical contract. Ballots have been in members' hands since May 19 and are due back to the guild by June 9.

Baldwin, Clooney, Field and Hanks became lightning rods last year during the contract debate when they publicly declined to support a strike authorization vote. Their latest foray into guild politics caps two weeks of e-mails, videos and statements put out by those for and against ratification of the latest agreement.

Ed Harris, Elliott Gould and Martin Sheen have also vehemently aired their reasons for voting against the deal in videos this week.

The guild, which is now being run by a slim majority of those in favor of ratification, collected the digital signatures of 500 members supporting the contract's passage, including Adam Arkin, Amy Brenneman, Morgan Fairchild, Dule Hill, former SAG president Melissa Gilbert, Ed Begley Jr., Jane Curtin, Patricia Heaton, Kathy Joosten, Rob Lowe, Ian McShane and Sam Waterston.

The "Statement of Support" reads: "I support Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors and negotiators, and wholeheartedly recommend that SAG members VOTE YES on our tentative Television and Theatrical Contracts. The agreement provides important gains for members across the country, including a 6.5% increase in wages, additional union jobs for background actors in television programs and motion pictures, increases in major role performer payments, first time ever payments for programs streamed on the Internet and many other protections and provisions for new media. It's time to put our industry back to work. I urge you to VOTE YES on this contract."